James the Just of Jerusalem

Forgotten Saint, Forgotten City

by James M. Kushiner

It is a fluke of history when great men who shape their times are lost in historical
obscurity. These ironies occur throughout history, and the history of the Church
is no exception. But that such a fate should befall a first rank figure of the
apostolic church seems unlikely. He was a man who headed the great mother church
of Jerusalem, who was an acknowledged saint whose sanctity and life of prayer
and intercession were proverbial, who was regarded with warrant by many in the
early church as the font of all episcopacy, who presided over the first Church
council, who authored Scripture, and who was as celebrated a martyr as any martyr
of his time. Who was this man? Not Peter, not Paul, not John, but James called
the Just, of Jerusalem. It is ironical that such a man should be all but forgotten
by so many today. And in some of the churches he is so little known that his
identity has been confused with that of another James.

The confusion is evident even in the calendar of the Christian year. On October
23, James the Just is commemorated in the Episcopal Church in America and in the
Eastern Orthodox churches. The Roman Church has unfortunately confused James the
Just with one of the Twelve, James the son of Alphaeus (Acts 1:13), and commemorates
him under that name on May 3. But the Eastern churches and this lone Anglican
representative do not make this mistake. Consequently, they have assigned a date
to James the Just separate from that of the Apostle James, son of Alphaeus. (To
keep things straight from the outset, in case you are thinking of another James,
there is a third James in the New Testament, one of the Twelve, son of Zebedee,
brother of St. John. His death is recorded in Acts 12:2. We are not concerned
with this James here; and no one is particularly confused about his identity.)

Was James One of the Twelve?

But just who is this James of Jerusalem, or as he is called in Paul’s
Epistle to the Galatians, “James, the Lord’s brother”? Is
he outside the circle of the original Twelve Apostles? Most modern scholarly
opinion, as well as the majority of ancient traditions, support keeping distinct
James the Just, Brother of Our Lord, from James the son of Alphaeus. The biblical
evidence seems clear. First James (the Just) either by name or in association
with the rest of the Lord’s brothers, is mentioned in distinction from
the Apostles (Acts 1:13-14; 1 Cor. 9:5 and 15:7). Second, in the Gospels James
is listed as a brother of Jesus (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3); but when the lists
of the Apostles in the same Gospels are given, James is listed as son of Alphaeus,
not one of the Lord’s brothers. Besides, the brothers of Jesus appear
in the Gospels to be initially reticent to support Jesus’ ministry. Beyond
this, the distinction between the two Jameses is confirmed in light of the evidence
from the early Church.

James in the New Testament

The New Testament provides us with glimpses of James and, taken together, these
help us gain a sense of James’ importance. A number of things stand out.
After Jesus’ resurrection, he appeared to James in a separate revelation
(1 Cor. 15:7). James had become the leading figure of the Jerusalem church by
the time of James Zebedee’s death (ca. A.D. 44). When Peter had escaped
from prison during Passover with the help of an angel and was about to flee Jerusalem,
he left word to report his escape “to James and the brethren.” Several
years later, at the Council of Jerusalem, James took a strong hand in deciding
the matter of requirements for Gentile converts to Christianity: “It is
my judgment, therefore…,” and he went on to formulate a policy that
became the policy for the whole Church (Acts 15:13ff). James clearly presided
over this Council. When Paul visited Jerusalem years later, he “went to…James,
and all the elders were present” (Acts 21:18). Speaking of an earlier visit
to Jerusalem, Paul stated he received the “right hand of fellowship”
from “James, Peter and John” (a listing of names in which James is
given precedence). James is the only name regularly connected with the Jerusalem
church in this period.

James in the Early Church

The testimony of the early Church confirms James the Just’s position and
importance. Hegesippus, a second century Palestinian Christian, who traveled widely
and carefully investigated the history of the preceding century, says:

Control of the church passed [from Christ] to the apostles, together with
James, whom everyone from the Lord’s time till our own has called the
Righteous.

James is appropriately considered the first bishop of Jerusalem, the mother church.
Clement of Alexandria (d. 210) states:

After the ascension of the savior, Peter and James [the brother of the apostle
John] and John did not struggle for glory, because they had previously been
given honor by the Savior, but chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem.

It is noteworthy that Eusebius in his Canon [Jerome-Eusebius] reckons
all episcopal succession as ultimately going back to James the Just. In the
problematic Pseudo-Clementine literature (second century?), James is called
a “bishop of bishops.”

Clearly, James’ reputation was unsurpassed in the early Church, and
there are three factors that are helpful for us to consider in understanding
his prominence. First, there is the respect accorded the “brethren of
the Lord”; second, the position of Jerusalem itself as the mother church
and center of unity; and third, James’ own reputation for sanctity.

The “Brethren of the Lord”

The “brethren of the Lord” came to be known in the early church,
according to Eusebius, fourth century historian, as the desposynoi,
“the Master’s [kinsfolk].” That such a category existed is
evident in Paul’s time: they are mentioned in Acts 1:14, but even more
significantly in 1 Cor. 9:5, where they are accorded roughly equivalent prominence
with the apostles. Moreover, Hegesippus writes:

After James the Just had suffered martyrdom for the same reason as the Lord,
Symeon, his cousin, the son of Clopas, was appointed bishop, whom they all
proposed because he was another cousin of the Lord.

Certain of these family members enjoyed leadership and are spoken of as exercising
leadership over the churches of Palestine on into the second century. But James’
influence extended beyond Palestine in his lifetime, which brings us to our second
point.

Jerusalem, Mother Church

The position of Jerusalem as mother church has been lost to us, but it was a potent
reality in the primitive Church, in which the city functioned as a center for
all the churches. It was not simply that Jesus had died and was raised from the
dead there. It was the center of Israel, and according to the Old Testament, the
“place where God chose his name to dwell.” The early community expected
Jesus to return quickly, and that return, according to the ancient prophecies,
would occur in Jerusalem. For Jerusalem was to be (and is yet to be) the seat
of the messianic kingdom. Jesus’ disciples thought in terms of an earthly
kingdom and were eager to see it established (Acts 1:6). Beyond Palestine, Jerusalem
held a position of honor among Jews, being the center of world Jewry. The Church
itself was still largely Jewish and hence this position of honor, besides being
theologically important, was only natural. Indeed, the churches founded in Europe
by Paul, “apostle to the Gentiles,” sent contributions back to Jerusalem,
even when they could scarcely afford them. It was only later, after the catastrophic
war with Rome which ended in A.D. 70 with the destruction of the Temple and much
of the city, that Jerusalem could no longer function as the center of Christendom.
But before Peter and Paul met their deaths in the sixties, Jerusalem was still
the center, and James was the person at its center.

James, Saint and Martyr

The third factor contributing to James’ prominence centers upon the person
of the man himself. By all accounts, he was an outstanding example of godliness.
He was known as “the Just and Oblias” (“rampart of the people
and righteousness”), according to Hegesippus. He was believed to have been
a consecrated Nazirite ascetic, a familiar figure in the Temple, whose knees had
grown “hard like a camel’s” through his constant intercession
for the forgiveness of the people. He seems to have been regarded with an almost
superstitious reverence by friend and foe alike. In A.D. 62, certain authorities
in Jerusalem, perhaps frustrated in their attempts to get at Paul earlier, maneuvered
James into a public confrontation about acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. Perhaps
hoping the old ascetic would back away from a frank Christian confession and thereby
neutralize some of James’ strong Christian influence on the people, the
plotters were frustrated by his bold confession, which had an effect on a number
of the people gathered there. They tried to make the best of the situation and
cried out, “Oh, oh, even the just one has erred.” At this point some
men threw the old man down from a parapet of the Temple, and, seeing that the
fall had not killed him, a crowd stoned him. (One account also mentions that a
fuller beat him with his club. James is often depicted in Christian art with a
club at his feet.) The respect accorded James is evident in Eusebius’ own
statement:

Thus it seems that James was indeed a remarkable man and famous among all
for righteousness, so that the wise even of the Jews thought that this was
the cause of the siege of Jerusalem immediately after his martyrdom, and that
it happened for no other reason than the crime which they had committed against
him.

Josephus, the Jewish historian, also records the death of James in his Antiquities.
He states that the high priest, Ananus, who instigated the plot against James,
was stripped of his office by King Agrippa for his crime against James.

The Epistle of James, attributed to James the Just, reveals an authoritative teacher,
ardently concerned with a rigorous morality and righteousness. Of all the apostolic
writings, it is the one most reminiscent of Jesus’ own teaching on the poor
and the rich. Its tone has been compared to that of the Sermon on the Mount. James
continued to be revered in the Church for years after his death. In the fourth
century church at Jerusalem, Eusebius tells us, a piece of furniture was on display
as the “throne” of James the Just—that is, his episcopal chair.
Whether the chair was authentic or not, it indicates a certain respect and pride.

The Meaning of James Today

What has James to offer the Church today? He first serves as a reminder that Jerusalem
was the true mother church of all Christendom, and that the Church Universal’s
destiny ultimately lies there. It is not without reason that in the Apocalypse,
the writer sees at the end “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down
from heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2). When it comes to the various claims of
Rome, the East, and elsewhere, regarding apostolic succession, respective dignities,
and jurisdictions, the Jerusalem Church and James’ presidency over the first
Church council may point the way to a new ecumenical era. Ecclesiastical triumphalism
is out of place in light of the testimony of the early church. We do a great disservice
to the Church in limiting our sight to the Latin West or the Greek East or any
other milieu. No one branch of the Church can claim to contain the whole. As a
monk of the Eastern Church has written:

Antioch and Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople are great and venerable
names in the history of the Christian Church; but it is from Jerusalem that
we are first of all descended.

As the so-called Liturgy of St. James (still used in the Eastern churches on his
feast day), says, “We make offering for Zion, the mother of all churches.”

Finally, we may picture the saintly figure of James, kneeling in the Temple, praying
on behalf of the people, believer and unbeliever alike. As the collect of the
Book of Common Prayer reads for October 23:

Grant, O God, that, following the example of your servant James the Just,
brother of our Lord, your Church may give itself continually to prayer and
to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity….

Until the Church is ready to kneel in prayer with James, on behalf of her
own witness and unity, we will continue to live in the fog that obscures not
only this eminent saint from our sight, but also important realities of our
own past which could point the way to future restoration and wholeness for a
divided Christendom.

“James the Just of Jerusalem” first appeared in the Fall 1986 issue of Touchstone. If you enjoyed this article, you'll find more of the same in every issue.

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